Billy The Kid Review Essay, Research Paper

ALIAS

Billy the Kid

The Man behind the Legend

By: Donald Cline

He was an American legend known as Henry McCarty, alias William H. Bonney, and alias Billy the Kid. He was called Robin Hood by some, a cold-blooded murder by others. Sometimes he appears as a romantic figure led astray by the circumstances of life that he could not control, sometimes a hero, and sometimes just an insignificant outlaw. Henry McCarty was a man of varied images. He was a killer, a gambler, singer, piano player, and a user of both men and women. He was a personable, well-liked young man to those he did not steal from or needed but hated by those who were outside these categories.

Donald Cline spent thirty-five years of his life studying Billy the Kid. He assigned himself to the task of separating fact from fiction. He wrote this book basing it only on solid research and merely personal opinion. Cline wrote this book for many reasons. The first and main reasons was to educate people about Billy the Kid in a much more quick and factual way than he was taught about the ALIAS. Donald Cline wanted others to know about the legend of Billy the Kid and he wanted them to develop their own opinions on him and his actions. His purpose is stated clearly from the beginning without any hesitation.

Cline approaches the material on Billy the Kid just like most other authors would. He tells of his early life first and then develops from there. Most of the unimportant details are given from the middle of the book. The beginning is basically just a background on the ALIAS. After every chapter, he summarizes what he has written which makes it a lot easier for the reader to understand and get a better and more clear view on things.

Donald Cline has researched this topic better than I have seen any other author do so. He spent thirty-five years researching this topic so that he could relay the history of Billy the Kid onto his readers. He stated ?It became my life and my life became this book?? which clearly shows his interest in the topic. In order for Cline to write this book, he had to consult Government offices, newspapers, magazines, microfilm, real estate records, death records, libraries, and courts. These are clearly defined as primary sources. He uses many illustrations and actual photographs that make the book more enlightening for the reader. It provides an actual sense of how things looked and might have been in the 1880s.

Donald Cline does not have very much background on writing. I believe that he is a fantastic author on this subject. The length of his research is clearly visible in his writing. It is not any new way of writing he does not have any particular style.

Billy the Kid The Man Behind the Legend was written by Donald Cline to the best of his ability. He has accomplished a piece of work that took him over thirty five years. He is an author that could write any book and do a very good job with a lot of time and good effort. This is his only publication and I think he knew it was going to be his only once, therefore he made it stand out over all other books on the subject of Billy the Kid.

I am pleased with the way that Donald Cline introduced his information and the way he developed each idea into a new chapter. He had the unique style of putting a chronological summary at the end of every single chapter. This summary provided me with a lot of information that I may have skipped over in my readings. This book was a great source of information on Billy the Kid. It could have been used by anyone to either get some additional information on the topic, to do a sort of book report on him, or to do a review. It is an easy to read book with much factual and helpful information.

This book was one of the most informative and creative historical books that I have ever read. I thoroughly enjoyed the way that Donald Cline set up his book and organized his information. His way or writing was easy to understand and enjoyable. I learned a lot more information than I had already known about Billy the Kid and I hope others will learn too from reading this.

ALIAS

Billy the Kid

The Man behind the Legend

By: Donald Cline